SERC is 2,650 acres of nature! It's wonderful to explore. Even if one goes on the same trail, it's never the same. There's always something new, something I missed before, something amazing. Take for example, this frog to the left. It was hiding under a few leaves on a bush. Isn't it lovely? The top left picture is the view from the top of the hill behind the ruins at sunrise one morning when I went for a run. The one on the right is the view off of the bridge on the Java trail. And those are just glimpses of the nature that I live surrounded when I am at SERC.
The Thursday before I got here, there was a viscious hail storm followed by a windstorm at SERC. According to Gary, the hail put a few holes in the plastic on the chambers, but the wind later that evening/night did the real damage, whipping into the holes, ripping them open. Almost all of the panels on the Phragmites chambers had to be redone. That's what I spent my first day back doing, after orientation, re-orientation that is.
The Phragmites chambers are doing well for the beginning of the growing season. The Phragmites is already taller than I expected. And all of the stems are left from last year. It's part of who Phragmites is, it's a huge litter producer, which plays a key role in preventing other species from growing near it. The invasive, non-native lineage in particular has several traits that make it a "super-weed" one of it's current nicknames. You can see in this picture on the left that Phragmites dominates much of the area where it in invades. When these chambers were first established in 2010 they were built on the invading edge of Phragmites, half of the chamber were Phragmites and half was native vegetation. Now in many of the chambers, the Phragmites has pushed to the edge of the chambers. It's an amazing plant to study at an amazing institution! I'm so happy to be back at SERC!
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